Welcome to Fun and Safe Driving!

This site has been built by a driver for drivers. I love driving. I love this feeling of speed and control that my car gives me. I love the feeling of my car as an extension of myself. I love solving road puzzles on the fly. I love cruising and wondering around, when I'm in the mood. I love exploring traffic patterns, experimenting with them, and exploiting them to my advantage. I love pushing my car and myself to the limit, and sometimes even over the limit. I just enjoy my being on the road, it is a source of fun for me. I've been operating cars, bikes, and trucks for many years. And I believe I know how to make it safe. My driving record supports my belief. This is what they usually call defensive driving, and I learned this not in school, but on the road.

I built this site to share my defensive driving experience with you, so you can benefit from it, too. And I would love to hear about your defensive driving experience, which could complement mine and bring to us some synergy to enjoy. I hope we get more defensive (i.e. safe and thinking) drivers on our roads and highways this way, making our lives more fun and more safe.
Just to make a point, I don't think defensive driving is the right term for the task. It sounds like a military term: defense, offense, tactical, offensive... Does it ring any bell? Our number one enemy on the road is our own ego, which is inside us, yet "defensive" implies we defend ourselves from an external enemy... I personally would prefer to talk about safe driving, yet I don't have much choice. Most people search for texas defensive driving, and if I want them to find my site - I have to comply...

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Poll: Is it evil to grip a steering wheel from the inside?

I was taught this is a big NO-NO. In fact huge NO-NO. Enormous NO-NOOOOOOO. It's a taboo, it's a crime, it's the end of the World. You never ever even think of gripping the steering wheel from the inside - if you are worth at least something as a driver, that's it.

And I lived like that for 40 years, never questioning this piece of wisdom.

Now, lately, my wife started to make such grips time to time. I taught her to drive, I am proud of what we accomplished together in her driving, and surely I was all ready to fix her terrible mistake before it develops into a deadly habit.

I got a problem though. I am always quite logical in my teaching, I always explain things, not just state them. "You do it this way because otherwise this, this and this bad thing happens" - you know...

My former posts in this board related to two aspects of driving:
a) Creating a safe enviornment before you drive: Adjusting the seat, wheel and mirrors for maximal safety and efficiency.
b) Basic emergency handling: What to do when things get out of hand.

Today, I intend to "fill" in the gap between the two and relate to how to deal with hazards, prevent emergencies or reach them with a "head start" -- all applicable in every standard drive. In relation to this I will talk about the following terms: Concentration, Vision, Observation, Anticipation, Planning, Visualization, Hazard-perception, scanning pattern.

This whole thing begins from the realization that driving is obsolutly NOT a simple chore. It's not something you can do "automatically". You nee...

While it's true that several major insurance companies will now allow auto insurance clients to purchase pet coverage, that coverage is meant to pay for your pet's medical care if someone hits you, not to be a liability insurance policy if you hit someone because Fido is bouncing around the car, blocking your vision. The fact is, as much as we love to drive with our dogs, an unrestrained animal in a car is a serious safety hazard - literally an accident waiting to happen. How then, should we handle having our best furry friends along for the ride? Here are some tips:

Always Secure Your Dog: Small dogs allowed to ride loose in cars can get caught beneath the pedals, or seats, or bounce from seat to s...

Safe distance from the car in front of you -- what factors you need to consider.

What distance is safe to maintain? Whenever you drive in traffic, you keep asking and answering this question every moment over and over again. How should you approach this task in order to always be as safe as possible? What are the rules and guidelines, and what internal and external factors should you consider? Some of it they teach you in a Texas defensive driving course, some they don't.

The usual rule of thumb is to keep two-seconds distance, with variations of three and even four, and sometimes corrections under bad weather. I do not have any problem with two-seconds rule as a baseline, as long as you realize that it is just a rule of thumb, imprecise by...

Well, with gas prices approaching $4 all over the USA, this may be an interesting topic to talk about. I tried to put together all my experience and knowledge, and came up with the list of tips with explanations. They do tell you why every particular advice helps or does not help you to achieve best gas mileage.

Give it a try, I am pretty much sure you'll see a noticeably better gas mileage if you do - and no gas savers needed

Popular belief Texas defensive driving style seems to be just that - Speed kills! With the meaning - higher than speed limit speed kills. And the popular remedy to road dangers is - Slow down stupid! That's how many homegrown defensive driving classes have it. However, most experts in the field and almost anybody who takes time to seriously think about the issue come to the conclusion that speed per se is not the cause of deadly accidents, i.e. speed does not kill.

How this could be possible? And who is right? Since I did some serious thinking about driving, I came to the conclusion that speed does not kill. Now you are going to prove me wrong with all the examples of horrible high-speed crashes, right? But wait, I can tell you that yes, speed sort of does kill, too.

When you are driving an automatic car, your transmission is deciding when to switch gears. When you are driving a car with manual transmission this is your job. While it is definitely not a rocket science, it still requires some thought and skill.

There are quite a few myths circulating around on what is good and what is bad and how you should and how you should not switch gears. I can't just cover them all, so you ask if you have any concern, OK? You can hear for example that you should never let your engine rev higher than, say, 2000 rpm. Others will tell you - you should rev it all the way up to redline before switching to the next gear.

While both these approaches can have their place in experienced driver arsenal, he does not limit himself to one single approach. Why? Because t...

Real life story about driving that led to car crash, and about crash aftermath

I'm posting here a story of a guy who survived a serious car crash, caused by him ignoring road conditions while driving a performance car. He learned his lesson hard way, and now he wants to share his story with as many people as possible, so you guys can use his experience in your driving. It's a long story, but it's worth reading. It might in fact change the way you look at driving. You might even realize that defensive driving is not just an empty term.

After reading the story and watching the video, I invite you to think what exactly were his mistakes and what in his driving could he have done differently to avoid the accident.

Story:

In April 2005, most of the month consisted of 60-70 degree weather...that is until Saturday the 23rd. This is where the nice weather ended and ...

Safely starting your car up hill - Part3 of how to drive a stick shift

There are just two methods of starting your manual car up a hill that I'm aware of. I don't think other methods exist.

First is the easiest one, but somewhat slow and sloppy. You wait for a green light with your parking brake engaged. As soon as light turns green, you depress the clutch, shift into the first, and release the clutch to engagement start point. Then you simultaneously release parking brake, add gas, and release the clutch. It seems a bit complex on paper, but it is not. Basically you start as usual, you just add parking brake release, simultaneously with clutch engagement. It usually takes just a couple of tries to get it right, providing you already can start on a flat surface without a problem.

Second method is more complex and harder to master, but you don't have to ...